Double-O-Duck
"Double-O-Duck" is the forty-eighth episode of DuckTales. Synopsis A spy by the name of Bruno Von Beak, who bears a huge resemblance to Launchpad, arrives at the Duckburg airport, only to be pursued by two secret agents. The secret agents chase Bruno through the airport, and follow him in a plane as he escapes by catching a ride on another plane. Bruno jumps off the plane to a building below, and escapes the spies by going down a manhole. The agents follow Bruno down the manhole, which leads them onto a subway train. Bruno tries to get away at the next station, but he ends up getting trampled by the passengers. Meanwhile, Launchpad is walking down the street with a package for Scrooge, when a different spy stops him and tells him to take a suitcase to Geneva. As soon as he’s handed the suitcase, the two agents from before apprehend him, and take him to see J. Gander Hoover of the Duckburg Intelligence Agency (DIA). J. Gander believes that Launchpad is Bruno, but Scrooge shows up to straighten things out. Just then, the two agents show up with Bruno, and J. Gander sees the resemblance. J. Gander wants Launchpad to impersonate Bruno so that he can locate F.O.W.L. and stop Dr. NoGood, who is plotting to destroy all the money in the world. After Launchpad agrees to go along, he is brought to the attention of Gyro, who is a gadget inventor for the DIA under the name of “G”. Gyro gives Launchpad his spy gear; a toupee with a hidden gun, a phone disguised as a comb, grenade cufflinks, extending elevator shoes, and a bowtie camera. He lastly presents Launchpad with the Thunderclutch Whirly Dingy; a vehicle that can transform between a car, helicopter, and boat. J. Gander then gives Launchpad the title of Double-O-Duck. After a briefing from J. Gander, Launchpad takes off for Geneva in the Thunderclutch, but he quickly crashes and is provided with a backup. When Launchpad arrives in Geneva, a F.O.W.L. spy tells him to go to “New Deli” with a codeword. Launchpad misinterprets the message and actually goes to New Delhi. When he returns to Geneva, the spy tells him that he screwed up, and meant for him to go to the new deli across the street. The spy then tells Launchpad that the contact in the deli is gone, and that he needs to look for Feathers in New Delhi. Launchpad returns to New Delhi, and finds Feathers Galore, who’s a belly dancer at a nightclub. Launchpad gives her the codeword, and she gives him her room number. When Launchpad goes up to Feathers’ room, he finds her on the couch, ready to seduce him. Launchpad tries to continue with his mission, but Feathers wants to flirt with him instead. Launchpad manages to slip inside the closet to answer his comb phone, and gets a message from J. Gander to keep looking for Dr. NoGood. Feathers gets suspicious and calls Dr. NoGood from the bathroom on her hairbrush phone, who tells her to kill Launchpad. Feathers applies her poison lipstick, and when Launchpad tries to get away, she attacks him. Launchpad escapes through a hole Feathers makes by leaping into the wall, and drives off in the Thunderclutch. Feathers chases after Launchpad in her car, but Launchpad loses her by driving off a cliff. Launchpad fails to turn the Thunderclutch into a helicopter, so he jumps out and lands in a river, just as the Thunderclutch turns into a helicopter. Launchpad gets back into the Thunderclutch and flies back to Geneva, where he sees Feathers running into the deli. Launchpad tries to get into the back door, but the man at the counter will only let the pickle delivery man through. Launchpad has to dress up as a pickle delivery man to gain access, just as the real one arrives. Launchpad gets kicked out, but he hides in a pickle barrel and gets delivered to the refrigerated back room. When Launchpad tries to turn up the heat with the thermostat, he uncovers a secret passage leading underground. The passage takes Launchpad to a high-tech underground complex, which could only be F.O.W.L.’s base. After exploring the place a bit, Launchpad attempts to call the DIA, but he has to hide when Dr. NoGood and his henchman Odduck enter the room. Dr. NoGood announces that his men will break into Swiss bank accounts and spray all the dollar bills with a spray that will dissolve the ink on them. At that moment, Dr. NoGood and Odduck capture Launchpad and try to get him to squeal, and he foolishly does. Odduck then forces Launchpad into a room with two lions and Feathers. Feathers tells Launchpad that she is being punished for letting him get away earlier. When Feathers is unable to fight off the lions, Launchpad gets himself and Feathers out of the pit with his elevator shoes. They are soon pursued by Odduck, and when Launchpad is unable to call the DIA on his comb phone, he breaks it and shoots at Odduck with his toupee. Odduck manages to stop and destroy all the bullets Launchpad fires at him, and chases Launchpad and Feathers, who manage to hide from him. Launchpad then calls the DIA on Feathers’ phone, and manages to get his message through. At that moment, Dr. NoGood dispatches his men, just as the DIA shows up. Dr. NoGood escapes through a secret passage where Launchpad and Feathers await him. Since Launchpad’s toupee is out of bullets, they have to run after Dr. NoGood, and chase him to the lab where the vanishing spray is produced. Launchpad throws a cufflink at Dr. NoGood, but he gets hit by a barrel from the explosion. Launchpad then follows Dr. NoGood up a ladder and across a catwalk that leads over a vat of the spray formula. Launchpad attempts to blow up Dr. Nogood with his other cufflink, but it does nothing and blows up in the vat. Launchpad does manage to briefly blind Dr. NoGood with his bowtie camera, giving Feathers the chance to kick him into the vat. Afterwards, J. Gander congratulates Launchpad, and asks him to keep working for the DIA. Launchpad declines the offer, as he’d rather continue working for Scrooge. Feathers asks Launchpad to take her with him, but Launchpad tells her that he works alone. Launchpad returns to Duckburg with Scrooge, but since he forgot to fill up on gas, he crashes and gets yelled at by Scrooge. Trivia * This episode served as a loose prototype for Darkwing Duck. Certain elements from it were reworked into Darkwing's show. In fact, Darkwing Duck was going to be called Double-O-Duck, and his show was to have more of a spy theme to it, but the show had to be reworked when it was discovered that the Ian Fleming estate owned the 'double-o' title. ** J. Gander Hoover (a spoof of J. Edgar Hoover) was changed drastically, and became J. Gander Hooter. Other than their positions and names, the two characters are completely different in attitude and appearance. ** The organization of F.O.W.L. was changed as well. The original characters from this episode were replaced with characters such as High Command and Steelbeak. Also, the F in the acronym was changed from Foreign to Fiendish. * This episode was the one most requested by readers of Gladstone Publishing's DuckTales comic book to have a comic adaptation. * Huey, Dewey, and Louie don't appear in this episode. * The DIA is a parody of the CIA. * This episode is also a parody of the James Bond films. * The ending of this episode spoofs the ending of Casablanca. * According to a map seen in this episode, Duckburg is roughly located somewhere around Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. (Duckburg is in Calisota in the Carl Barks comics.) * Toon Disney's reruns of this episode cut out the following scenes (which are fortunately reinstated on the DVD release): ** During the car chase, Launchpad tells Feathers "It's your type who give women drivers a bad name!" ** Launchpad's second attempt to shoot Odduck, only for Odduck to catch the bullets in his hand and crumble them into dust (though Odduck catching the first bullet with his teeth was left in). With the Voice Talents of *Jack Angel - Additional Voices *René Auberjonois - Dr. Nogood *Peter Cullen - J. Gander Hoover *Barry Dennen - Additional Voices *Tress MacNeille - Feathers Galore, Female Operator *Terry McGovern - Launchpad McQuack, Bruno Von Beak *Hal Smith - Gyro Gearloose *Alan Young - Scrooge McDuck Video releases DVD * DuckTales: Volume 2